Bolt is baffled by security rules; Gabby Douglas' chance of another gold medal; and other Olympic news

Shares

August 6, 2012 6:17PM (UTC)

LONDON (AP) — Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:

___

Even Bolt had to cue

About to run in the 100 meters? Doesn't matter — get in line.

Usain Bolt was left baffled by London's rigid security rules on Sunday night as he made his way to the stadium for his race.

Advertisement:

"I was in the line, we were waiting to run and the guy was telling me to line up straight," Bolt said. "I was like, 'Really? We're about to run and they are going to make me stand in a straight line?' There are just some weird rules here."

Such as not being allowed to get skipping ropes past security.

"They said I can't bring it in, and I asked, 'Why?'" Bolt recalled. "They just said it is the rules. So if I have a rubber band that I need to stretch, I can't take it in. And when I asked why, they say, 'It's just the rules.'

"It's just some weird small rules that don't make any sense to me, personally."

Games organizer Sebastian Coe says there will be an investigation, but joked Monday that the delay "didn't seem to slow him up too much."

— Rob Harris — Twitter http://twitter.com/RobHarris

Advertisement:

___

Just in: The International Olympic Committee has expelled American judo player Nick Delpopolo from the games after testing positive for cannabis on July 30.

— Rob Harris — Twitter http://twitter.com/RobHarris

___

Bottle hrower update

Just in: AP Television's Miles Edelsten reports that the man arrested for throwing a bottle onto the track just before the 100-meter race will soon be on his way to court. A van has arrived to take him from the police station where he's being held to Stratford Magistrates court.

— Miles Edelsten — Twitter http://twitter.com/strewther

___

Prepare for a parade

Even once the Olympics are over, Britain will have one more spectacle to savor.

Prime Minister David Cameron's office is saying that Team GB's winning athletes — who have so far claimed 37 medals — will take part in a public victory parade.

Advertisement:

"My understanding is there will be some kind of event," Prime Minister's David Cameron's spokesman Steve Field said Monday.

— David Stringer - Twitter http://twitter.com/david_stringer

___

Lovin' London

Missy Franklin can be very persuasive — she's already persuaded her parents to stay and attend the Olympics closing ceremony with her.

Advertisement:

"I get these guys to go with me everywhere," she said, nuzzling her head into her father's chest on Monday. "I have the parental units close by."

Extending her stay means the winner of four swimming gold medals will now have to sprint directly to school when she returns.

The family returns to Colorado late on Aug. 13, class registration is the next morning and her senior year of high school begins on the 16th.

Advertisement:

"I think it will be exactly the same," the 17-year-old said. "Even though a few more people may know me, I'm still going to go to the same school I've been going to for three years and I'm really excited for my senior year."

Her mother, D.A. Franklin, said the family is determined to give her a normal senior year.

"I'm probably extremely naive, people say things are going to change, but right now our goal is to get her back into school," she said.

Franklin will still have a curfew and still have to do her homework, her mother said.

Advertisement:

"She's got the most wonderful friends and hopefully she can go to the football games she wants to and the movies and the dances that she wants to," her mother said. "We hope it's a normal year."

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

___

Soaking it in

Advertisement:

Matt Grevers is soaking up his time in the Olympic spotlight.

Winner of the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke and a member of the winning U.S. 4x100 meter medley relay, Grevers was one of many swimmers on a whirlwind media tour Monday.

He stood at the edge of the "Today" show set signing autographs and posing for pictures for at least half an hour.

"Swimming is not in the spotlight very often, so when it is, I enjoy it for sure," he said.

Advertisement:

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

___

Quickquote: London riots one year later

"The world saw a very different London a year ago. ... It saw a London I didn't recognize. What I am seeing at the moment is a London that I do recognize." — London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe on the one-year anniversary of the start of England's worst riots for decades.

Advertisement:

___

Lebron on the train

SPOTTED: Lebron James is getting to see a little of London. AP's Sam Petrequin was sitting next to him on the Javelin train that connects the Olympic Park with the city center on Sunday night. Asked if he'd been given permission to leave the village, Lebron, hooded and wearing glasses, said: "They kicked us out!"

Here's the picture: pic.twitter.com/5exAg32m

Advertisement:

— Samuel Petrequin — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/sampetrequin

___

Bottle Thrower

Olympic officials say there will be zero tolerance for any more incidents such as the throwing of a plastic bottle onto the track before Sunday's 100-meter final.

"Throwing a bottle on to the field of play is unacceptable, it's not just unacceptable at an Olympics Games but at any sporting event and anybody who does that will be removed," says Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London organizing committee.

London police say they have arrested the man, who has not been identified or charged. He was being held Monday morning at a police station in east London.

The suspect was reportedly hit by a Dutch judo champion after he threw the bottle on the track moments before the start of the 100-meter final.

— Gregory Katz — Twitter http://twitter.com/Gregory_P_Katz

___

Rare mistake

The Jamaicans had a rare mistake at Olympic Stadium on Monday.

Brigitte Foster-Hylton, who had the second-fastest time in the world in women's 100-meter hurdles this season, failed to advance to the semifinals. She hit the fifth hurdle in her heat, veered toward the inside lane, got off stride and never recovered. She threw herself to the ground after crossing the finish line, slapped the track surface, screamed and started crying as she brushed aside American Lolo Jones' attempt to console her.

This was Foster-Hylton's fourth Olympics, and the best female hurdler in Jamaica was hoping to end up on the podium for the first time. She finished eighth in Sydney, well back in and sixth in Beijing.

Until Foster-Hylton's mistake, Jamaican sprinters had done little wrong in London. Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake swept the top two spots in the men's 100-meter final Sunday night. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took gold in the women's 100, while Veronica Campbell-Brown got bronze.

— Mark Long — Twitter http:www.twitter.com/APMarkLong

___

Synchronized swimming factoids

Monday is the second day of synchronized swimming at London 2012.

— Synchronized swimming was introduced to the Olympics at the Los Angeles games in 1984

— In the 2012 competition there are two events — teams and duets

— The competition comprises of 104 competitors across both events

— It is one of only two Olympic sports at London 2012 that is only contested by women (the other being rhythmic gymnastics)

— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb

___

Headed to the games

IndyCar driver Scott Dixon is learning a lot about the Olympics from his wife, a former middle distance runner for Britain.

The couple is now headed to London, a day after Dixon won Sunday's IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.

"To go to an event like that and see what it's all about, and have somebody that I'm so close to sort of fill me in on what's going on behind the scenes ... I'm excited," he said.

He said, though, he has "pretty crappy seats" and may need some binoculars to get a piece of the action.

Emma Davies-Dixon ran the 800 and 1,500 meters on a national level, but scaled back her career when her father, who was also her coach, became terminally ill. She's been expressing some regret about walking away from her sport at a young age.

With the games now in her home country, she's been planning her visit for more than a year and has been excitedly tweeting about getting to Olympic Stadium to watch athletics.

Also headed to the games is fellow IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani and his wife, Bronte.

— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer

___

Quickquote: 'Respect'

"The most uplifting thing for me is that every competitor is given the respect that British sporting fans are giving them." — London organizing committee chief Sebastian Coe talking about how British fans have not been "jingoistic."

— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb

___

More gold for Gabby?

With two gold medals in her pocket already, Gabby Douglas is back for more.

The dynamic gymnast who helped the Americans to their first team gold since 1996 and then won the all-around competition returns to action on the uneven bars on Monday.

Douglas also competes on the balance beam on Tuesday, giving her a chance for four golds in these London Games. She's also hoping to avoid disappointment after McKayla Maroney, the overwhelming favorite in the vault, wound up with a silver on Sunday.

— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski

___

Streak is over

For the first time since 1980, the Olympics will feature a men's 400-meter gold medalist who is not from the United States.

The gold medal has stayed in the United States for seven straight Olympics, dating back to Alonzo C. Babers' win in 1984. The U.S. boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games, meaning they haven't lost an Olympic 400 in which they participated since 1972.

But defending champion LaShawn Merritt has a hamstring injury that knocked him out, and the Americans did not get a qualifier out of the semifinals on Sunday.

That opens the door for Kirani James of Trinidad and Tobago to break the streak.

— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski

___

To end a jinx

It's been 11 years since Canada beat the United States in women's soccer, and the Canadians know it. They're 0-22-4 in the last 26 matches, and will get another crack at the mighty Americans on Monday in Manchester.

The Canadians have only three victories in their history against the United States, and coach John Herdman thinks the one-sided rivalry is in his players' heads.

"They know there's something there. There's a little fear there that we've not done it for a while," Herdman says.

A win over the U.S. would guarantee Canada its first top-three finish at an Olympics or World Cup. It would also be the country's first Summer Games team medal since 1936.

— Joseph White — Twitter http:www.twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

___

Editor's note — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item, and get even more AP updates from the Games here: http://twitter.com/AP_Sports